The Stairs

Awarded "Best Canadian Film" by the Toronto Film Critics Association. "Filmed over the course of five years, and letting people tell their own stories in their own words, The Stairs is a work with deep compassion for those who've made their way back from the depths of addiction." - NOW

Director in attendance for Q&A & panel discussion. Hugh Gibson's compassionate and profoundly affecting The Stairs takes us inside Toronto's Regent Park Community Health Centre, whose staff of social workers includes both former and current drug users. These workers understand all too well what their clients are going through.

We will be donating to Waterloo Region Foodbank at this screening in memory of Chrissy Archibald, the social worker from Castlegar, BC, who was killed in London on the weekend. Please donate!

Shot over five years, Gibson's film focuses on three staff members: the loquacious, seemingly tireless Marty, who was so addicted at one point that, after being shot in a deal that went south, he stopped for a hit before going to the hospital; Roxanne, a former sex worker whose tales of life in the trade are beyond harrowing; and Greg, a biracial child of the 1960s consumed with a long-delayed legal case hinging on a police officer's use of excessive force.

As it draws us closer to Gibson's subjects, The Stairs challenges prejudices and preconceived notions. It also underlines how tentative sobriety and stability can be for people who have lived in addiction for years. - TIFF